Advanced Television

Catch Up

TF1 Group readies TF1+ launch

TF1 Group will launch its free of charge, ad-supported streaming platform TF1+ on January 8th 2024. Set to broadly replace the current catch-up and AVoD platform MyTF1, the new service will focus on news content and family entertainment. The launch date will coincide with the launch of a revamped version of the long-running soap Plus […]

November 15, 2023From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris

Paramount combining My5 and PlutoTV

Paramount has announced it will combine Channel 5’s BVoD, My5, with its FAST service Pluto TV, to bring audiences in the UK a supersized, free streaming service in 2024. The streaming destination will give access to an extensive range of new, exclusive and archived content from Channel 5, as well as an on-demand section and […]

November 1, 2023

BBC iPlayer marks 60 years of Doctor Who

BBC iPlayer has announced the biggest collection of Doctor Who titles to the platform with hundreds of episodes becoming available with multiple accessibility features for the first time. Before the Anniversary Specials hit TV screens, viewers will have the opportunity to travel back in time with any of the Doctors through the show’s 60 year […]

October 11, 2023

MPs seek Media Bill changes

Obligations on smart TVs, firesticks and set-top boxes to ensure public service broadcasters (PSBs) are prominent on their platforms should be strengthened, according to the UK House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee. In its report on the draft Media Bill, the Committee also wants to see current obligations on PSBs to provide programming […]

September 22, 2023By Colin Mann

BBC iPlayer adds 90s boxsets

A number of the BBC’s celebrated shows from the 1990s have been added to iPlayer, and will be broadcast on BBC Four at 10pm on Wednesdays over the coming weeks. The selection includes Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio’s first ever TV show, 1994 medical drama Cardiac Arrest, written under a pseudonym at a time […]

September 15, 2023

Report: UK TV sector revenues £3.9bn in 2022

The 2023 Pact Census reveals that UK TV sector revenues reached their highest ever levels in 2022, driven largely by the growth of international revenues and a significant increase in streaming commissions. Total sector revenues returned to growth levels seen before the pandemic, increasing by 21.3 per cent on 2021 to reach a record £3.94 […]

September 13, 2023

BBC iPlayer improves availability, latency

The BBC has announced ‘under the hood’ updates to its iPlayer service. There are two key improvements: Rapid availability – The BBC has introduced a bit technology they’re calling pseudo VoD – which ensures programmes are now available to watch on demand on iPlayer much more quickly than they were before. Previously, if viewers missed […]

August 11, 2023

Ofcom: Linear broadcast slump as boomers switch to streaming

The media diets of viewers and listeners in the UK appear to be more diverse and fragmented than ever, according to broadcast regulator Ofcom’s latest annual report on the TV, online video, radio and audio sectors. As competition for the nation’s attention intensifies, Media Nations 2023 finds that the proportion of viewers who tune in […]

August 3, 2023By Colin Mann

Survey: Generational divide in US entertainment use

Results from a recent Kagan US Consumer Insights survey show that the use of digital entertainment among younger Americans (Gen Z adults and millennials) and older Americans (baby boomers and seniors) is profoundly different. Gen Xers tend to bridge the gap, which makes them part of everyone’s target market. Among the key findings: Baby boomers/seniors […]

August 3, 2023

1980 Oppenheimer series on BBC iPlayer

Classic BBC series Oppenheimer, which stars Sam Waterston as atomic bomb creator J. Robert Oppenheimer, is now available to watch on iPlayer. With Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster epic of the same name proving a hit in cinemas at the moment, viewers can watch the BBC’s take on this brilliant, conflicted physicist. The seven-part series originally aired […]

August 2, 2023By Nik Roseveare